This past Saturday was the Emerald of Excellence Debutante Cotillion hosted by the Upsilon Omega Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha. For the past 8 seasons, I have had the distinct honor of choreographing for this event. And this year the organization celebrated 10 seasons of cultivating priceless gems.

I love choreographing for this event, as I love getting to know the debutantes, their escorts and their parents. Plus, I am always on the lookout for future Baby Bison! Yes I am always ready to talk about the pros and cons of attending the illustrious Howard University.

So for each cotillion, I am always tasked with choreographing three dances – one for each group, the Ladies in Waiting (Junior Debutantes, who are either in Grade 7-8), Debutantes with the fathers and Debutantes with their escorts. I also choreography how the Ladies in Waiting and the Debutantes are introduced.  On average there are usually, 10 Ladies in Waiting and between 25-50 Debutantes. So that means 25-50 fathers and 25-50 escorts. So there could be up to 100 people on the floor at one time dancing. That’s A LOT of people, but always up for the challenge.

I am so proud and happy of how everything came together. We were on a tight timeline this year to get everything done. I only had a month to teach the 3 dances with rehearsals being only 2 hours long and twice a week. I appreciated that everyone came in focused and ready to learn. I literally taught the dance in one class and rehearsed the dance in the next rehearsal before having to move on to the next group. Craziness… just a little. But this group were rockstars. All the ladies and gentlemen looked so classy the night of the cotillion. Below are a few picture from the night!